It’s hard to believe that the waters of a former swimming pool in Govan gave birth to an Olympic gold medal winner. And not just any gold medal winner...the youngest in British Olympic history to date.

But that is the remarkable story of Scottish freestyle swimmer Isabella 'Belle' Moore, who competed at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.

In the first year that women’s swimming was permitted, Moore was the leading member of the British relay team that claimed gold, and is the only Scottish female swimmer to achieve the ultimate prize - a record that still stands over 105 years later.

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Born in Govan in 1894, Belle was taught to swim as a youngster at school after Glasgow City Council introduced mandatory lessons for all pupils, and by the age of 17 she was already a swimming instructor.

When the decision was made to allow two women’s swimming events at the Olympics, more went to Stockholm to compete for Britain with teammates Annie Speirs from Merseyside, Irene Steer, from Cardiff and Jennie Fletcher from Leicester - alongside 23 other women from across the globe.

The medal won by fellow swimmer Jennie Fletcher, similar to Belle's (Image: getty)

After failing to reach the final of the 100m freestyle, she joined with her teammates to compete in the 4x100m relay, which of course, they won. And in some style too. They set a world record time of 5 minutes and 52.8 seconds, finishing a full 12 seconds ahead of Germany in second place.

Incredibly, Moore was only 17 years and 225 days old when she won the gold medal.

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Given the time in history, the women's swimming events were surrounded in controversy by observers, who deemed to be ‘risque’ and ‘improper’ swimming costumes - with many nations refusing to send female competitors to compete for that reason.

Disappointingly, Moore returned to her native Glasgow to little fanfare in her native city, and later emigrated to Maryland in the USA after marrying naval architect George Cameron in 1919.

She continued to swim and work as an instructor while living in the States, teaching handicapped children to swim, before she passed away in 1975 aged 80.